Frank Larkin was sworn in on January 6, 2015, as the 40th United States Senate Sergeant at Arms, continuing a distinguished career in law enforcement, national security, intelligence, and cyber and physical security.
As chief law enforcement and executive officer of the Senate, the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) enforces rules of the Senate; provides a range of technical and administrative services to Senators in their Washington D.C., and state offices; and maintains security in the Capitol and Senate office buildings. The SAA organization is comprised of more than 800 personnel.
For nearly a decade, Mr. Larkin was a member of the Senior Executive Service, recently serving as both the Acting Director and the Vice Director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) within the Department of Defense. He previously served as JIEDDO’s Deputy Director for Operations-Intelligence Integration and for nearly four years as the Director for the Counter IED Operations-Intelligence Integration Center (COIC). JIEDDO’s mission is to focus all Department of Defense actions in support of the combatant commanders' efforts to defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as weapons of strategic influence. As the Vice Director, Mr. Larkin’s full attention was in support of the country’s deployed warfighters and special operations forces around the globe and the integration of a “whole of government” disruption effort targeting extremist networks that employ IEDs.
Mr. Larkin served for more than two decades in the United States Secret Service (USSS), beginning in 1984 as a Special Agent assigned to the Philadelphia Field Office. At the conclusion of this assignment, Mr. Larkin was transferred to Washington, D.C., where he held positions in the Office of Training, the Washington Field Office and the Presidential Protective Division. Following his protective assignments, Mr. Larkin was assigned to the Office of Congressional Affairs for a two-year fellowship on Capitol Hill, serving a year each with the Senate and House Appropriations Committees.
Mr. Larkin entered the USSS supervisory ranks with his selection as Assistant to the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office, where he led financial, electronic, and organized crimes investigations. Following 9/11, he returned to Washington, D.C., as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Presidential Protective Division, supervising White House security operations. As Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Technical Security Division, Mr. Larkin was responsible for tactical countermeasures programs. In 2004, he was promoted to the Senior Executive Service, assuming the position of Deputy Assistant Director for Protective Research. Additionally, he served as the agency’s Chief Technology Officer.
Mr. Larkin has substantial private sector experience as well. From June 2006 to May 2007, he was Director, Program Management & Leadership, for the Raytheon Company. He initiated and contributed to innovative projects supporting information sharing associated with local, state, and federal public safety and homeland security communications interoperability and network integration. More recently, Mr. Larkin worked at Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions—Defense & Intelligence Solutions and was responsible for providing operations and intelligence analysis support to the intelligence community. Additionally, he formed Larkin Evolutions LLC, an executive management consulting practice leveraging his leadership experience across the defense, intelligence, law enforcement, cyber security, infrastructure protection and innovative technology sectors.
A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Mr. Larkin has a significant military and law enforcement special operations background. He served as a special warfare operator in the Navy SEALs. After his service in the Navy, Mr. Larkin was a uniformed patrol officer with the Norristown (PA) Police Department, a homicide detective with the Montgomery County (PA) District Attorney’s Office, and a Maryland State Trooper-Flight Paramedic.
Mr. Larkin holds a BA degree in criminal justice and a MS degree in public administration from Villanova University. A native of Philadelphia, he resides with his wife in Annapolis, Maryland.